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Author: Joseph Yi

Since he was a freshman in college, Joseph has worked in several internet startup companies and has developed campaigns and digital strategies for Fortune 500 companies and brands including the Los Angeles Lakers, Manchester City FC, the Oakland Raiders, Sephora, and Whole Foods.

So, you’re just ramping up your ecommerce stores Facebook business page or your page is already well-established – what’s next in your ecommerce social marketing strategy? Facebook offers various options to drive more traffic to your Facebook page, and consequently, to your website. Two options that are common and many small businesses to large corporations use are Facebook ads and sponsored stories. Both are viable and inexpensive options if you are looking to drive traffic to your ecommerce store.

You’ve likely heard that “social ads” are the future of advertising, and they are certainly on the rise. With Facebook ads, you have the opportunity to approach exactly the target group you want. Because Facebook users fill in information about themselves, including their basic demographic information and interests, you can be specific when deciding which audience to buy Facebook ads for. Facebook also incorporates users’ search inquiries into ads. For example, if someone was searching for cabernet wine glasses on Google, related ads will be displayed in that person’s Facebook ads column. Continue reading What to Know About Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories

The survey is a staple in our society and dates all the way back to 1824, when it was first used to gauge the public’s interest for the upcoming presidential election. Since then, surveys have been used to perform research, measure the efficacy of certain people, and gauge levels of customer satisfaction. The last one there in particular is most relevant to ecommerce. Surveys provide key pieces of information that can reveal a lot about the customer experience with your store. As a result, you can incorporate feedback into your store’s operations and improve them, ultimately netting you a better brand and sales figures.

The Art of Survey Creation

The first thing you need to do before sending out customer surveys is choosing a platform that works best for you. There are a lot of options out there, so you have time to research and weigh in on each one. Try to find a survey system that can cater to your strengths and size. For instance, you don’t want to be stuck with a program designed for multi-national enterprises if you’re still in startup mode. You can also take a look at platforms’ design templates to see if their motifs and colors mesh with your brand. Continue reading Three Ways to Use Surveys to Increase Ecommerce Sales

You’ve just posted your ecommerce stores new product line to your Facebook page, but only a small fraction of your fans actually will see it. We all know that Facebook is the most influential social media site, and with its various options for engagement, it’s a great way to interact with your customers, learn about your fan base, and find new leads. However, because there are so many posts a user could want to see in their newsfeeds—posts from friends, businesses they’re fans of, etc—most people don’t have enough time to see all the posts. Additionally, 90% of the people who click on your Facebook Page often don’t come back to your Page. They are more likely to read your content in their own Facebook newsfeed. That is, IF you know how to make sure it shows up there.

As you may know, Facebook implemented a new algorithm that “listens” to user feedback, which essentially allows people to decide who and what to connect with. For example, when a user likes something, that tells Facebook newsfeed that they want to see more of that kind of content; when they hide something, that tells Facebook newsfeed to display less of that content in the future. With over 30 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook each month—it’s imperative for ecommerce stores that use social medial to make sure your content gets seen. Below are a few tips on getting your Facebook posts noticed by your fans: Continue reading 5 Ways to Get Your Facebook Posts Noticed

We all know that men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Well, not literally, but males and females are very different types of people. Each gender has a different way of processing information, dealing with problems, and spending free time. You can even take this dichotomy and apply it to ecommerce since it turns out that men and women have different online shopping habits, as well. This factor is especially important if you run a store that sells products geared towards a specific gender. You can shape your store design and marketing strategy around gender habits and, in turn, see a larger response from your targeted audience. Here is how men and women are different when it comes to online shopping. Continue reading Male Shopping Habits Versus Female Shopping Habits

If you have done research on marketing for ecommerce, chances are that you have run into the term retargeting. Say that a person went to your website, browsed some products, and failed to make a complete checkout. If you don’t make any further efforts to win the customer back, that lead is probably gone for good. Retargeting exists to give you a chance to get that lead back and successfully convert him or her. In a study conducted earlier this year, Criteo found that using retargeted ads for your site can raise your conversion rate by nearly 70 percent. This marketing technique is also great at further exposing your product lines. Retargeting is pretty powerful stuff that can help your bottom line in the long run. Here’s how retargeting can boost your ecommerce presence.

How Retargeting Works

Most standard retargeting systems work using Internet cookies, which are little pieces of data that store your online browsing habits, passwords, and other miscellaneous details. If you head to a site that employs retargeting, the retargeting program will put a cookie into your web browser folder and track what you do. So going back to the abandoned cart example, if you put some items into a cart and don’t make a proper checkout, the cookie will take note. Continue reading Why You Need a Retargeting System for Your Ecommerce Page

Using hashtags is a valuable way to get your tweets, Instagram photos, pins, and Facebook timeline posts in front of more people. It’s common nowadays to include a hashtag in a social media post, especially for ecommerce businesses. The concept was first introduced on Twitter in 2007 as a way to track conversations related to a particular topic. You can easily join or create any conversation made around that topic. As an ecommerce business, how can you leverage hashtags to enhance your marketing and sales?

Monitor visibility and gain insight into your audience

As hashtags come in handy in categorizing posts by purpose or topic, you can browse through your relevant hashtags to gain insight into what your target market is talking about. In other words, hashtags help in monitoring the visibility of your company or your products. You can monitor what your audience is posting about, what’s trending, and attitudes toward a specific topic or trend. This provides new and certainly valuable information that wasn’t available previously. With this information you learn from tracking hashtags, you can refine your marketing tactics and better target your customers. Continue reading Hashtags for Ecommerce

This past week, Fab.com made news once again after its co-founder Bradford Shellhammer stepped down. The departure is a bookend to the ecommerce store’s pivot away from flash sales and into the territory of standard online retail, a la Amazon. In its flash sale heyday, the company raised over $150 million in funding and was valued at around $1 billion dollars. Since the beginning of the year, Fab.com has been going through some rapid downscaling in an effort to be profitable. Flash sales used to be the next big thing in ecommerce, but somewhere along the line, the business model’s wheels started to fall off. Surprisingly enough, Zulily, an ecommerce flash sale store for apparel designed for kids and mothers, is trying to launch an IPO north of $200 million total value. This seems to be an outlier though, as there’s a lesson to be learned from the Groupons, Fab.coms, Totsys, and the others out there. How did the flash sale business model fall apart? Continue reading The Rise and Fall of Flash Sales

There are now more than 150 million users on Instagram, and it’s growing faster than ever. Instagram is a creative visual platform where people can capture, customize, and share photos and videos. The photos can be also posted on Twitter and Facebook, making it easy to integrate all your social media channels. Before we dive into how ecommerce businesses are leveraging Instagram, acquaint yourself with the basics of Instagram if you are just getting started in the platform.

Instagram allows businesses to share moments that capture the essence of their brands. Brands are constantly trying to find innovative ways to engage with customers on Instagram, and the platform makes it easy to do so. With the use of hashtags, you can track campaigns, host photo contests, market your brand with trends (i.e. #ThrowbackThursday, #WineWednesday), and inspire action.

When it comes to ecommerce businesses, Instagram is arguably the most complementary social media platform to have. People want to have a personal experience with the brands they’re engaging with, and Instagram allows your brand to do this in real time while giving customers a unique experience. There are various ways to use Instagram for ecommerce business, such as showing off a collection of products you offer, giving customers a glimpse into your company and employees, showing customers what goes on behind the scenes (i.e. photo shoots, etc), and more. Here are seven creative ways ecommerce businesses are using Instagram to engage their fans. Continue reading 7 Creative Ways Ecommerce Stores Are Using Instagram

Hailed as the next step in mobile computing technology, a pointless fashion faux pas data miner, and everything in between, Google Glass seeks to change the way you experience life. When you put on this new piece of technology, you can pull up directions, take photos and video, send and view messages, and do much more. In the professional arena, the product is already being explored for use by soldiers, doctors, security personnel, pilots, and others who need hands-free technology to perform their jobs well. One area in particular that will be affected is ecommerce. With a portable computer on your face, you can do a lot for your online shopping sprees. See something you want to buy? Need some price comparisons? Looking for product suggestions? Google Glass should be able to help you out with these sorts of tasks. Here’s how Google Glass can impact the world of ecommerce.

What is Google Glass?

Shaped as a pair of glasses, Google Glass is a computer that uses an optical head-mounted display to show you information. Think of it as a smartphone that does not require you to use your hands. You issue verbal commands to the device, and it provides you with the information or functionality you need. The initial prototype came out in 2011, and since then, the product was made available to select early adopters earlier in 2013. The official release date is probably within a year, but tech companies are already developing third-party apps for use with the headpiece, some of which pertain to ecommerce platforms. Continue reading What Google Glass Means for Ecommerce

Back in early May 2013, the US Senate voted to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act, inching it closer to its implementation and enforcement. The bill aims to level the playing field between ecommerce fronts and brick and mortar stores by making purchases from both taxable. Brick and mortar stores already collect sales tax based on local tax code rates and pretty much just serve the immediate community around them. On the other hand, ecommerce sites work across the entire country and currently just collect tax for in-state customers (in-state defined as an ecommerce store having a physical address in the same state). If the act is passed, state governments should see over $10 billion in tax revenue from online sales. The bill is still technically up in the air, as the House of Representatives hasn’t voted on it and President Barrack Obama has yet to sign it into law, but he has shown strong support for it. Here’s what you need to know about this piece of legislation.

A Brief History of Taxation and Online Sales

Back in 1992, the Supreme Court case Quill Corp. v. North Dakota resulted in a ruling that required a business to have a physical presence in a state for the state to collect taxes from it. Quill Corporation, headquartered in Illinois, is an office supply retailer that offered North Dakota residents a service that allowed them to purchase items remotely from the Quill Corporation store. North Dakota wanted to tax all purchases made through this, but the Supreme Court sided with the business and struck down the state’s attempt. Continue reading The Marketplace Fairness Act and You